Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-04
THE DIME NOVEL.
Old Andy whitney Tells How He
Came to Write such Trash.

Old Andy Whitney, the dime-novel
writer, is well-known character
about the cheap publishing houses on
the east side. While the Columbia
College boys were astonishing their
audiences with learned addresses at
the recent commencement, old Andy
turned to the writer and said: "Ail
very beautiful, eh? What bright
young faces thsse fellows have, and
how different they will be by this
time next year. l have been there
myself. Thirty-five years ago l took
the highest honors in English litera-
ture, so when faced the world had
fully made up my mind that | was the
coming American author.
"After graduating took couple Of
months rest to recruit my mental
forces and the same time to formulate
literary projects. At first scorned to
think of turning my pen to anything
less noble than an epic poem. When
l thought over the subject matter of
my projected poem, however, found
the Revolution was the only event in
our history grand enough for me. l
saw that great amount of prelimin-
ary reading must be done.
"SoI laid aside this project and re-
solved to write novel which required
only imagination and could be dashed
off with ease. felt it somewhat de-
grading, still l was consoled by the
remem brance that some very tolerable
men in English literature had devoted
their talents to story writing.
"My novel was begun Immediately
after vacation and was finished in a
month. 1t was indeed beautiful
story, imbedded in bower of rhetori-
cal roses. With the manuscript in
my satchel hastened to New York.
l selected a publisher and sent him
the manuscript by mail, with note
stating my terms in the stiffest man
ner, and grandly giving him three
days to decide.
"Three days passed without an
answer. / waited week, two weeks,
three weeks, and then note came,
informing me that the manuscript
was not available, though this did
not imply that it might not possess
merit
81 thought that he meant by this
that the story was good, but he could
not afford to pay my price. l did not
know that the word unavailable in
publishing and newspaper circles
meant no good.' found it out when
five other publishers and magazine
editors rejected my manuscript with
the same formula.
"Meantime my funds were giving
out. The thought of doing newspaper
work occurred to me. At first l was
Mortified at descending SO low. l
blushed for myself when forced by
necessity. / wrote an editorial on
The Brotherhood of Nations l fin
ished it, and adorning it with pretty
blue ribbon, made my way to the edi-
torial rooms of the newspaper. Hand
ing it to the editor, l stepped back a
considerable distance, wishing to avoid
the coming congratulation.
"The editor hastily glanced over the
first two pages. 1 heard distinctly the
words rot, trash Then he said po-
litely: "Veyy nice article, butter
we have too much matter on hand,
and don't think your article would be
exactly available
"That was enough for me. under
stood the meaning of unavailable. l
rushed out in rage, determined nev-
er again to honor such low creatures
with any product OF my pen.
This determination changed when
money ran out, but terrible word 'un-
available greeted me everywhere.
Then for the first time, it occurred to
me that 1 might not be a literary gen.
ius after all. This was my salvation,
for it induced me to turn my pen to
any work that offered.
II tried a continued story for one of
the cheap weeklies. 1t was nearly
the same as the one refused by the
publishers. 1t was accepted,
and thereafter found mar
kets for my work in the
story papers, and with the publishers
of dime novels. The flowers of speech
which caused the editor to exclaim
trash were trump cards in my new
field.
"I settled down to this kind of story
writing, and have since earned sub
sistence by 1t. Rather different sort
of career from that which pictured
to myself on graduation day, isn't it ?"
IN. Y. Commercial Advertiser.